A â€œSafeâ€ & â€œLegalâ€ Procedure Thatâ€™s Always Fatal

By: Michael R. Shannon

Here we go again, a bunch of fanatics disrupt a public hearing screaming â€œsafeâ€ and â€œlegalâ€ in an obvious effort to block sensible, long overdue regulations that protect health and are supported by a majority of the public.

Furthermore, the only reason these abominations are allowed in the marketplace is because some biased judge made a legally indefensible ruling that flies in the face of public opinion and a sophisticated, modern reading of the Constitution.

Donâ€™t these gun and tobacco mouthâ€“breathers ever get tired of peddling their antiâ€“scientific propaganda? Have they no shame?

Oh, wait. Check signals. This wasnâ€™t the National Rifle Association and Joe Camel disturbing the peace. It was â€œprogressiveâ€ Democrats and feminists claiming abortion is â€œsafeâ€ and â€œlegalâ€ and should therefore be immune to regulation â€” just like handguns.

The occasion for this wailing and gnashing of teeth was the Virginia Board of Healthâ€™s decision to once again regulate abortion clinics just as it did prior to 1984.

Briefly, the reinstituted rules require abortion mills that perform five or more firstâ€“trimester lethal injections each month to meet the same standards as outâ€“patient surgery centers where customers are expected to survive.

This means just like nail salons, barber shops and funeral parlors; abortion clinics will have to meet state regulations and undergo periodic inspections.

This was too much for the Virginia Coalition to Protect Womenâ€™s Health, â€œThe regulations are a backdoor attempt to deny women access to a safe, legal medical procedureâ€¦they must protect womenâ€™s access to affordable, high quality reproductive health care.â€

Wow! For a minute there I thought they wanted the baby to survive, until I recalled that feminists donâ€™t associate â€œreproductive health careâ€ with actual reproduction.

Corrina Beall, a recent college graduate with what appears to be a very active and spontaneous sex life, complained, â€œThe young women rely on these services. I rely on these services. The families of Virginia rely on these services, and my generation relies on these services.â€

And the editorialists at the Washington Post thundered, â€œItâ€™s already hard to get an abortion in Virginia, and itâ€™s about to get much harder.â€ This stretches credulity since the number unborn babies executed last year totaled 26,000. What increase in the carnage would make the worthies at the Post more comfortable? Are 40,000 deaths sufficient? 50,000? How high must the pile be?

Smoking is legal, too, yet federal regulators are now proposing to require lurid photos on cigarette packs to deter smoking through the use of shock â€” an idea I think should be extended to all Planned â€œParenthoodâ€ offices â€” and states and cities have almost outlawed the practice within sniffing range of any nonâ€“smoker.

By comparison, abortionists are getting off easy and for the foreseeable future wonâ€™t be joining smokers in back alleys. Currently the rulebook for abortion clinics weighs in at 26 pages of regulations. This compares well with the regulatory burden imposed on tattoo parlors, which totals 25, and is somewhat smaller than the regulation total for body piercing. Of course those establishments only participate in the death of restraint, rather than actual death like abortion clinics.

For â€œprogressivesâ€ deathâ€“byâ€“regulation is a reasonable and accepted strategy if youâ€™re talking about offshore drilling, nuclear power or even capital punishment. But when it comes to regulating death in an abortion clinic, any regulation is too much.

Right now complaints are being heard regarding rules that specify the size of exam rooms, width of hallways, unannounced inspections and medical procedures.

The rule booklet even requires a certain number of parking spaces based on clinic size. â€œProgressivesâ€ believe this kind of nitâ€“picking is fine if you are regulating something dangerous like a church, but completely over the top when applied to an innocent abortion emporium.

Virginia even has the gall to require patient records be kept and open to unannounced inspection. Whereâ€™s the precedent for this? Donâ€™t pharmaceutical companies, nuclear power plants, offshore oilrigs, hospitals and airlines all selfâ€“report and we take their word for the safety of their products and procedures?

The abortion industry is built on the death of innocents and a flight from personal responsibility â€” all while hiding behind the euphemism of â€œchoice.â€

â€œProgressivesâ€ boast their policies are based on science and not superstition. These Darwinian social justice crusaders proclaim that science states unequivocally that human life originated from a singleâ€“cell organism that appeared eons ago.

Yet when it comes to any singleâ€“cell organisms lurking in the womb, the juryâ€™s out on whether itâ€™s human until it gets a slap from the doctor or a dose of herbal tea from the midwife.

Michael R. Shannon is a public relations and advertising consultant with corporate, government and political experience around the globe. He is a dynamic and entertaining keynote speaker. He can be reached at
michael-shannon@comcast.net.

About The Author Michael R. Shannon:Michael R. Shannon is a public relations and advertising consultant with corporate, government and political experience around the globe. He is a dynamic and entertaining keynote speaker. He can be reached at michael-shannon@comcast.net.